Sign Language

By Jennifer Pinto

If you walk into Mrs. Kaegi’s Montessori class on a Wednesday morning, you might find the children in her class singing a song, reading a book, or talking to one another - silently! Instead of using their voices, these children are using their hands and practicing sign language. This year, Jennifer Pinto, whose son is in Mrs. Kaegi’s class, has volunteered to teach sign language once a week.

The children seem to be innately attracted to the signing and are very enthusiastic learners. Storybooks and songs are used to get the children to sign along and to keep their interest. For instance, while learning the signs for colors and animals, they signed along to the book Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? by Eric Carle. They also learned to sign the songs “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, “Old MacDonald had a Farm” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”. They have been learning signs in various categories such as colors, animals, family members, and feelings. Classroom lesson themes are tied in whenever possible. For example,
while studying the rain forest, the children learned the sign for “rain forest” and signs for some of the creatures that might be found there.

Beyond merely learning vocabulary and how to sign with songs, Jennifer is trying to teach the children that signing is another way of communication. In order to reinforce this notion, she regularly greets the children with “Good morning” and “How are you?” and she has taught them different responses such as “good”, “fine”, and their favorite, “silly”. She encourages them to greet and respond to her and to their classmates in sign language at the beginning of each lesson.

Children are usually very interested in learning sign language and as with any language; it is easier to learn at a young age. The children in Mrs. Kaegi’s class are no exception. They are enthusiastic about the weekly lessons and are picking up the signs quickly.